Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.12 - Korean Particles (3)

Korean Particles ~부터 and ~까지

Two more important Korean particles you need to know are ~부터 and ~까지.

~까지 can be used in sentences to have the meaning of "to/until a place/time.":

3시까지 기다릴 거예요
= I will wait until 3:00

저는 그 회사에서 5월까지 일할 거예요
= I will work at that company until May

저는 오늘 이 책을 여기까지 읽었어요
= Today, I read this book until here (this point)

저는 한강까지 달렸어요
= I ran until the Han River

~부터 is a particle that is often confused with ~에서 because both can translate to "from" and have overlapping usages. You learned earlier that one usage of ~에서 is to indicate the location from which an action is departing. For example:

나는 인천에서 서울까지 갈 거야
= I will depart from Incheon and go to (until) Seoul

~부터 is very similar, but is specifically identifying the place (or time) in which something starts from. If we look at this sentence:

나는 인천에서 서울까지 갈 거야

The particle ~에서 identifies that the person departed from 인천. In theory, this could also be seen as the starting point. Therefore, this sentence could also be written as:

나는 인천부터 서울까지 갈 거야
= I will go from Incheon to Seoul

These two sentences are essentially the same. In both cases, the subject is going from Incheon to Seoul. They can both be seen as correct, but most Koreans would rather use ~에서 when talking about the location in which something starts/departs:

다음 버스는 저 정류장에서 출발할 거예요
= The next bus will leave from that stop

다음 버스는 저 정류장부터 출발할 거예요
= The next bus will start leaving from that stop

There definetly is a difference.. but I can't exoalin it in English..

Instead, ~부터 is commonly attached to a time to indicate when something starts:

저는 어제부터 아팠어요
= I have been sick since (from) yesterday

저는 내일부터 한국어를 공부할 거예요
= I'm going to study Korean starting tomorrow

It is very common to see ~까지 used in the same sentence as ~부터:

저는 아침부터 밤까지 공부만 했어요
= I only studied from morning to night

It is also common to see "부터" attached to 처음 to translate to something like "from the start" or "from the beginning." For example:

그들은 저를 처음부터 싫어했어요.
= They didn't like me from the start

처음부터 다시 시작할 거예요.
= We will start over again

When used to say "from start to finish," the word "끝" is often used to mean "finish":

저는 그 영화를 처음부터 끝까지 봤어요
= I watched the movie from the beginning to the end

저는 그것을 처음부터 끝까지 복습했어요
= I reviewed that from start to finish

Korean Particle ~(으)로

The Korean particle ~(으)로 can be added to nouns with a few different meanings. One of the main meanings is to indicate with what tool/device/method/material something is carried out. The English equivalent varies depending on the usage:

Write with a pen
Go to the store by car
Go to school on foot
Make a house out of wood

This meaning of ~(으)로 can be used in so many situations it would be impossible to list them all.

Remember we already learned how.. when to use 로 and 으로. Lets see if you guys remember! ^-^  Comment if you know. If you don't know, plz look at other people's comments for the explainations >_<

한국어를 인터넷으로 배웠어
= I learn Korean from the Internet

컴퓨터로 숙제를 했어
= I did my homework on the computer

나는 우리 집을 벽돌로 지었어.
= I built our house out of bricks

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In this same respect, ~(으)로 can be used to indicate the language in which something is spoken in. Here, just like in some of the examples above, the language acts as the "tool":

저는 한국어로 말했어요
= I spoke in Korean

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It is also used to indicate what you ate for a specific meal:

저는 아침식사로 밥을 먹었어요
= I ate rice for breakfast

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If somebody does an action in line with a bunch of other people, you can use ~(으)로 to indicate the order something is done by attaching it to a number + 번째. For example:

저는 학교에 두 번째로 왔어요 = I came to school second (I was the second person to come to school)

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The other main meaning of ~(으)로 is to indicate the direction that something is happening in. This sometimes has the same meaning as "에":

저는 집으로 갈 거예요
= I will go home... which would be the same as:

저는 집에 갈 거예요

~ (으)로 is often added after ~쪽 to make "~쪽으로". ~쪽 can be added after some nouns and some direction words (above/below/East/West/etc) to mean "the direction of ___."

그쪽 = that way/direction
위쪽 = upper direction
사람 쪽 = the direction of the people, etc..

To make sentences like:

저쪽으로 갔어요.
= He/she went that way

학생들은 교실 쪽으로 걸었어요
= Students walked towards their class

Notice the difference between these two:

저는 집 안 쪽으로 달렸어요
= I ran into the inside of the house

저는 집 안에서 달렸어요
= I ran inside the house

In the first example, you are running into the house/in the direction of 'inside the house.' In the second example, you are running inside the house.

End of Unit 1.12

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